Tag: Series Premiere

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Season 1 Stargate Stargate Atlantis

The Rising

Stargate AtlantisAt the Ancient site discovered in Antarctica, Daniel Jackson and Dr. Elizabeth Weir, along with a team from Stargate Command, are still trying to determine the location of the Ancients’ lost city and learn more about their leftover technology. One such experiment, with a control chair that can only be activated by those humans who possess a rare Ancient gene, launches a drone weapon into the sky over Antarctica – and straight at a helicopter bringing General Jack O’Neill to the base. O’Neill only makes it safely to land due to the quick thinking of his pilot, Major Sheppard. But that’s not the only skill Sheppard brings to the table – completely by accident, it’s discovered that he has the Ancient gene, and a more instinctive rapport with Ancient technology than anybody on the team Dr. Weir has assembled. Weir asks General O’Neill to assign Sheppard to join the expedition, despite a colorful service record.

That expedition, Daniel believes, will lead to the lost Ancient city of Atlantis – and there is now evidence that the city is not just on another planet, but in another galaxy, a trip requiring enormous power. Dr. Rodney McKay, the leading authority on the stargate outside of the SGC, thinks that an Ancient power device known as a Zero Point Module, will be the only way to open a wormhole that can reach another galaxy – and in all likelihood it will prove to be a one-way trip. When Weir’s team arrives at Atlantis, the dormant but intact city awakens – especially when Major Sheppard sets foot anywhere near Ancient technology, including a hologram that tells of how the Ancients abandoned the city after years of being besieged by an enemy known as the Wraith. But the activation of all of that technology comes at a price: Atlantis is submerged beneath hundreds of feet of ocean, and the only thing that has kept the water pressure from crushing Atlantis is a shield that has operated for thousands of years. Now that the city is awakening, power is being drained from the shield. Dr. Weir assigns Colonel Sumner, the military commanding officer of the expedition, to use Atlantis’ stargate to visit a nearby world to find more ZPMs.

Sumner’s team, including Sheppard, find a primitive society on the planet on the other side of the gate, and despite Sumner’s misgivings, Sheppard befriends a local woman named Teyla, who promises to tell him more about the Wraith. But the Atlantis team gets to see the Wraith first-hand – for the first time in generations, the Wraith attack Teyla’s people without provocation, abducting many of them, along with Sumner and several of his men. Sheppard orders a hasty retreat back to Atlantis, bringing refugees from Teyla’s village with him, and begins to make plans to rescue Sumner. Dr. Weir only reluctantly gives him permission to go, but Sheppard manages to find Sumner just in time to see him being interrogated – and consumed – by the Wraith. Sheppard shoots Sumner himself to give the Colonel a relatively merciful death, but when he kills the Wraith that was interrogating Sumner, the entire Wraith hive awakens. Now the Wraith know that the Ancient city is occupied again, and thanks to what they learned from Sumner before his death, they know that the city’s new occupants come from a rich new feeding ground in another galaxy.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Joe Flanigan (Major John Sheppard), Torri Higginson (Dr. Elizabeth Weir), David Hewlett (Dr. Rodney McKay), Rainbow Sun Francks (Lt. Aiden Ford), Rachel Luttrell (Teyla)

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Richard Dean Anderson (General Jack O’Neill), Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson), Garwin Sanford (Simon), Paul McGillion (Dr. Beckett), Andee Frizzell (The Keeper), Craig Veroni (Dr. Grodin), Christopher Heyerdahl (Halling), Robert Patrick (Colonel Sumner), Reece Thompson (Jinto), Boyan Vukelic (Sgt. Stackhouse), Dean Marshall (Sgt. Bates), Geoff Redknap (old Colonel Sumner), Casey Dubois (Wex), Melia McClure (Female Ancient), Dan Shea (Sgt. Siler), James Lafaznos (Wraith), David Milchard (SGC Technician), Bro Gilbert (Scientist), Peter Grasson (Scientist), Ona Grauer (Ayiana), Dan Payne (Wraith Warrior), Aaron Dudley (Male Ancient), Edmond Kato Wong (Atlantis Technician), Stefano Colacitti (Toran), Mary Joan Buchanan (Beckett’s Mom)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 01

Rose

Doctor Who19-year-old Rose Tyler has a boyfriend, a department store job, and just enough curiosity to put her in harm’s way. When she finds herself trapped in the basement level at work, surrounded by moving shop window mannequins who seem determined to crush her, she’s snatched out of danger by a total stranger who calls himself the Doctor. While he saves her life, he doesn’t do much to help her job when he completely destroys the department store, claiming that he’s trying to halt an invasion by a force that can possess and control anything made of plastic – such as the mannequins. Rose is surprised when the Doctor reappears the next day at her home, looking for any of the plastic creatures that may have survived the explosion at the store, and she’s even more surprised when he actually finds precisely that, namely a mannequin arm which tries to kill both of them before the Doctor disables it. Rose follows him, persistently trying to find out who he is, but the Doctor isn’t inclined to give straight answers about his own identity; indeed, at her home, he seemed to be surprised by his own reflection. Rose walks away as the Doctor marches into an incongruous 1950s police call box in the middle of London and then turns around to find that the box has disappeared.

In an attempt to find out more about the Doctor, Rose winds up meeting with an internet conspiracy theorist who says that the Doctor has been spotted throughout Earth’s history. Waiting for her in a car outside, Rose’s boyfriend is curious about a dustbin that seems to move on its own, but his curiosity turns into sheer terror as the bin engulfs him completely without a trace. When Rose returns to the car, her boyfriend has been replaced by a duplicate who seems unusually curious about her contact with the Doctor. When the duplicate becomes more aggressive in his line of questioning, the Doctor once again comes to the rescue, and the duplicate is exposed as yet another plastic creature, an Auton. The Auton attacks ferociously, but this time the Doctor is ready for it, disconnecting its head from its body. The headless Auton body still pursues the Doctor and Rose back to the police call box, and Rose is stunned to find that it’s not a call box at all, but the TARDIS – the Doctor’s time machine, bigger inside than outside and definitely not from Earth, not unlike the Doctor himself. Using the Auton’s head, the Doctor follows the signal controlling the Autons to their source, and a confrontation with the Nestene Consciousness masterminding the Auton assault. But the Doctor alone can’t prevent them from invading Earth.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Christopher Eccleston (The Doctor), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler)

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Keith Boak
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey), Mark Benton (Clive), Elli Garnett (Caroline), Adam McCoy (Clive’s son), Alan Ruscoe (Auton), Paul Kasey (Auton), David Sant (Auton), Elizabeth Fost (Auton), Helen Otway (Auton), Nicholas Briggs (Nestene voice)

Reviews by Philip R. Frey & Earl Green
LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Invasion

Pilot

InvasionA C-130 hurricane hunter plane flies into the eye of Hurricane Eve, hours before it’s due to make landfall near Miami, Florida. The crew realizes too late that something else is in the eye of the storm as well – something large, under the water, which then blasts the plane out of the sky with thousands of brilliant lights.

Park ranger Russell Varon battens down the hatches at work and then rushes home to find that his daughter Rose has disappeared while looking for her missing cat. Russell’s teenage son, Jesse, is boarding up the windows of their home, and both Russell and Jesse are annoyed when Russell’s ex-wife Mariel, now married to the sheriff of Dade County, makes an appearance to accuse Russell of not caring properly for their children. Jesse shuts his mother out of the house while Russell looks for Rose in the woods near the house.

Just before Russell finds her, Rose sees thousands of lights descending from the storm itself into the water. Trying to dodge a falling power line on the drive home, Russell rolls his truck over and he and Rose aren’t rescued until the next morning. When Russell returns home, he finds it’s a mess, but Jesse is unhurt, as are Russell’s new wife, reporter Larkin Groves, and her hard-drinking conspiracy-theorist brother Dave. But Mariel apparently never made it home after leaving Russell’s house, and Sheriff Underlay promptly makes an appearance to question Russell and Jesse. Underlay gets a call: Mariel’s car has been found in the Everglades, but she’s not in it. He, Russell and Jesse join the search parties, and find her naked, but otherwise unharmed, at the edge of the swamp. She doesn’t seem to recognize anyone except Underlay.

Intrigued by Rose’s mention of lights in the sky, Dave asks her to guide him to where she saw them land. Traveling through the swamp by boat, Dave finds a large piece of metal – and finds something else as well. He takes Rose back home and then goes back to retrieve what he saw: mangled human remains, enmeshed in the remains of some kind of creature he’s never seen, floating just under the surface of the water. Dave shares his terrifying find only with Russell, who refuses to share Dave’s belief that it’s evidence of an alien presence on Earth. Still skeptical, Russell agrees to accompany Dave back to the swamp that night. They see something glowing under the water, and when Dave tries to get a closer look, something grabs him and pulls him under the water. Russell dives in and brings him back to safety, but now Dave is more convinced than ever that he’s seen an alien life form. Russell takes Dave to the hospital where Mariel is one of the head doctors, and she seems dismissive of the idea that Dave has been attacked by anything other than an alligator.

Why are more people being found in circumstances just like Mariel’s – completely disoriented, unclothed, and then back on their feet and doing their jobs within hours? Why have Mariel and Sheriff Underlay agreed to quarantine Homestead despite Russell’s assurances that it’s not necessary? Why can’t Rose shake the feeling that something has changed about her mother? And why is Russell starting to find that he can’t completely discount Dave’s rantings about alien invaders?

Season 1 Regular Cast: William Fichtner (Sheriff Tom Underlay), Eddie Cibrian (Russell Varon), Lisa Sheridan (Larkin Groves), Kari Matchett (Dr. Mariel Underlay), Tyler Labine (Dave Groves), Evan Peters (Jesse Varon), Ariel Gade (Rose Varon), Alexis Dziena (Kira Underlay), Aisha Hinds (Mona Gomez)

Order this DVDwritten by Shaun Cassidy
directed by Thomas Schlamme
music by Jon Ehrlich & Jason Derlatka

Guest Cast: Jeannetta Arnette (Ruth), Frank Collison (Earl), Bryan Anthony (Guardsman), Ivar Brogger (Dazed man), Phe Caplan (Young woman), Holmes Osborne (Mayor Littles), Amy Watt (Ms. Gilroy), Scott Mercer (A.A. reporter), Rich Skidmore (Anchorman), Robert Standley (Pilot), Ryan Honey (Navigator), Gwen Mihok (Weather Officer), Mesan Richardson (Dropsonde operator), Juan Ramirez (Hispanic man,) Lorena Mena (Hispanic woman), Aramis Knight (Hispanic boy)

Notes: In reality, Homestead, Florida was nearly wiped off the map by Hurricane Andrew in 1992; the first two episodes allude to that real event. In an example of the worst possible timing, the pilot episode of Invasion aired mere weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed into parts of Louisiana and Mississippi – and just days before Hurricane Rita struck Texas and the other end of the Louisiana coast. ABC quickly pulled promos and previews referencing the fictional hurricane in the wake of Katrina.
Kari Matchett was a recurring cast member on the posthumous Gene Roddenberry series Earth: Final Conflict, appearing throughout the series as the Taelon conspirator Zo’or. SF movie fans may remember William Fichtner as Kent, the blind colleague of Jodie Foster’s character in the feature film adaptation of Contact.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Night Stalker

Pilot (Broadcast Version)

Night StalkerInvestigative reporter Carl Kolchak signs up with a Los Angeles newspaper to cover crime, and when his paper’s senior crime reporter, Perri Reed, arrives at the scene of a grisly murder after he does, his dismissive attitude automatically gets things off to a bad start. But even when the paper’s editor hands the story over to Perri, Kolchak refuses to end his own investigation. Perri is intrigued and more than a little disturbed when Kolchak seems to have solid information on the murder that comes from sources he can’t identify. Another attack leaves a woman near death and her young daughter goes missing, and again, Kolchak seems to know more than he’s letting on and won’t let go of the story.

Curious about her new colleague/competitor, Perri launches an investigation of her own, trying to found out more about Kolchak. The trail leads to Kolchak’s previous job as a crime reporter for a Las Vegas paper – and the still-unsolved murder of his wife in which he himself is still a suspect. A call to FBI Agent Fain has unexpected results – Fain arrives in L.A. to arrest Kolchak in connection with the very same murders he’s investigating. Even after Kolchak is set free again, Perri remains suspicious, especially when she learns that pursuing the grisliest, most bizarre crimes is a mission that Kolchak takes on even outside of work. He’s still trying to figure out who killed his wife, and why a red mark was left on her hand. The same mark has turned up on some, but not all, of the victims whose deaths Kolchak has investigated. Perri is sympathetic, but ultimately spooked, and tries to put as much distance as she can between herself and Kolchak – and when she’s about to become the next potential victim, that’s a decision she may not live to regret.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Stuart Townsend (Carl Kolchak), Gabrielle Union (Perri Reed), Eric Jungmann (Jain McManus), Cotter Smith (Tony Vincenzo)

written by Frank Spotnitz
directed by Dan Sackheim
music by Michael Wandmacher
series theme music by Philip Glass

Guest Cast: David Denman (Henry Gale), Ele Keats (Emily Gale), J. Marvin Campbell (Deputy), Timothy McNeil (Coroner), Clay Wilcox (Ed Medlock), Sarah LaFleur (Trish Medlock), Madeline Carroll (Julie Madlock), John Pyper-Ferguson (Agent Bernard Fain), Susan Misner (Irene)

The two KolchaksNotes: Roughly 20 minutes into the pilot episode, as an in-joke, Darren McGavin appears as another reporter in Kolchak’s office; McGavin appeared as the original Kolchak in two 1973 TV movies and all 20 episodes of the subsequent cult classic TV series. His image, isolated from the original negatives and digitally inserted into the scene, was taken from the first of those movies, The Night Stalker. Producer Frank Spotnitz was one of the guiding lights of The X-Files, a show whose creator, Chris Carter, readily admitted that the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker had been a key inspiration for his series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Hyperdrive Season 1

A Gift From The Glish

HyperdriveIn the year 2151, the spaceship HMS Camden Lock is on a mission to represent British interests in deep space, and that mission is not going smoothly. Captain Henderson has been tasked with the difficult mission of promoting use of the Peterborough Enterprise Zone, but with alien visitors like the Glish, it’s an uphill climb – particularly when part of the ritual of greeting the Glish involves allowing them to lick the people who are greeting them. Offended at the reactions to their friendly greeting, the Glish leave a present for the Camden Lock’s crew – a creature capable of wreaking deadly havoc. Naturally, it’ll choose to do precisely that during the next visit by a foreign dignitary.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Kevin Cecil & Andy Riley
directed by John Henderson
music by Mark Thomas

HyperdriveCast: Nick Frost (Henderson), Kevin Eldon (York), Miranda Hart (Teal), Dan Antopolski (Jeffers), Stephen Evans (Vine), Petra Massey (Sandstrom), Paterson Joseph (Space Marshal), Richard Katz (Male Glish), Katherine Jakeways (Female Glish), Laurence Howarth (Fasmoff), Remi Wilson (Piretti), Joe Marshall (Wade), Waen Shepherd (Captain Helix), Stephanie Dooley (Beautiful Space Lady), Morwenna Banks (Announcer), Maggie Service (Computer voice), Ewan Bailey (Computer voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Eureka Season 1

Pilot

  • By Dave
  • July 18, 2006

Eureka U.S. Marshal Jack Carter is transporting his runaway daughter Zoe back to Los Angeles when she claims to see herself in a car driving the other way. Distracted by the argument, Carter winds up swerving off the road. He and Zoe walk into the nearby town of Eureka, which turns out to be anything but your typical small town. Eureka is the home of Global Dynamics, a company established during the Cold War to give America’s best scientists the opportunity to develop new breakthroughs. The result is a city full of geniuses and leaders in their fields, living with technology beyond the everyday. Even Henry Deacon, the town’s mechanic (among other jobs) is a brilliant scientist. Jo Lupo, the deputy sheriff, is a former Army Ranger. The local bed and breakfast is owned by Beverly Barlowe, a psychotherapist to world leaders. Dogcatcher Jim Taggart is a “wildlife containment specialist.” Allison Blake, the Department of Defense’s liaison to Eureka and General Dynamics, enlists Carter’s help after he solves a missing persons case that does not involve any actual missing persons but does involve a missing section of a mobile home. One of Eureka’s scientists has been working on his own private experiment, and the result is odd bubbles in space-time that swallow up and transport objects. As the distortions grow, Carter proves himself indispensable to the investigation – maybe a little too indispensable for his tastes.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Colin Ferguson (Jack Carter), Salli Richardson (Allison Blake), Debrah Farentino (Beverly Barlowe), Joe Morton (Henry Deacon), Jordan Hinson (Zoe Carter), Ed Quinn (Nathan Stark), Erica Serra (Jo Lupo), Matt Frewer (Jim Taggart)

written by Andrew Cosby & Jaime Paglia

directed by Peter O’Fallon

Guest Cast: Maury Chaykin (Sheriff Cobb), Greg Germann (Warren King)

Note: Ed Quinn does not appear in the pilot.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Heroes Season 1

Pilot

HeroesConvinced that humanity is on the cusp of an evolutionary step that could unlock its true potential with undreamt-of abilities, Professor Mohinder Suresh finds himself facing skepticism from both the students in his genetic science class and his fellow faculty members in India. When he learns that his father – upon whose theories his life’s work is based – has died under mysterious circumstances in New York City, Suresh leaves his teaching career behind to find out what really happened. Before he leaves India, he stops by his father’s office to pick up his research on humans with extraordinary abilities – and someone else is already there for the same reason.

In Las Vegas, single mother Niki Sanders and her electronics-savvy son Micah find themselves on the run when her debt to a mob bass named Linderman comes due. She leaves Micah with a friend and then goes home to pack, but Linderman’s hired hands are waiting for her. Niki blacks out, and when she awakens, she finds that the thugs have been brutally killed – and sees someone who is both herself and not herself in the mirror, urging her to stay quiet. In Odessa, Texas, high school cheerleader Claire Bennet demonstrates an amazing ability to one of her friends, taking a deliberate fall from a great height and surviving unharmed – the latest of several stunts that would be lethal to anyone else – but she later draws attention to her ability by pulling a man from a burning train wreck. In New York City, Congressional candidate Nathan Petrelli grows concerned as his younger brother Peter talks endlessly about a series of dreams and visions in which he believes he can fly. Artist Isaac Mendez awakens from a drug binge, discovering several pictures that he doesn’t remember painting, and he’s certain that they describe future events. His girlfriend Simone, who has hired Peter Petrelli as a day nurse for her dying father, convinces Peter to help Isaac; along the way, Peter has a chance encounter with Suresh, now working as a cab driver. Simone finds Isaac unconscious, and Peter finds Isaac’s most recent paintings – a picture of Peter flying, and a picture of a mushroom cloud erupting in the heart of NYC. In Tokyo, office worker Hiro Nakamura continues his own experiments, having discovered the ability to stop or even reverse time simply by intense concentration; his friend Ando is not impressed. Hiro practices another ability – teleportation – and ends up in New York City. However, when Peter Petrelli, inspired by the painting, decides to practice the ability that he’s certain he possesses, the results are less conclusive…

Season 1 Regular Cast: Santiago Cabrera (Isaac Mendez), Jack Coleman (Noah Bennet), Tawny Cypress (Simone Deveaux), Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah Sanders), Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman), Ali Larter (Niki Sanders), Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura), Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder Suresh), Leonard Roberts (D.L. Hawkins), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli)

Order the DVDswritten by Tim Kring
directed by David Semel
music by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman

Guest Cast: Cristine Rose (Angela Petrelli), Ashley Crow (Sandra Bennet), Thomas Dekker (Zach), Shishir Kurup (Nirand), James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), John Prosky (Principal), Deirdre Quinn (Tina), Brian Tarantina (Weasel), Richard Roundtree (Charles Deveaux)

Notes: The character of Mr. Bennet, not made a regular until later in the season, was originally billed simply as “Horn Rimmed Glasses” in early press releases. The scene in which Claire sticks her hand into a kitchen disposal and removes it again, mangled but rapidly healing, drew complaints from In-Sink-erator, the maker of the disposal. Though this first episode of Heroes is officially given the simple title Pilot, fandom has dubbed it both Genesis and In His Own Image. An extended cut of the pilot was shown as San Diego Comic Con 2006, and an even longer cut assembled by Tim Kring, including a central character who was omitted from the rest of the series, is included on the season 1 box set. This synopsis describes the broadcast version of the episode rather than either of those extended versions.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Big Finish Spinoffs Doctor Who I, Davros The Audio Dramas

Innocence

I, Davros: InnocenceWar rages on Skaro, as it has for centuries, between the Kaleds and the Thals. Born to a mother who is an ambitious senator and a father whole military career is coming to an ignoble halt due to illness, young Davros leads a life of privelege, but is fascinated by the patterns of life and nature around him, almost to the exclusion of all else. His mother hires a tutor, Magrantine, whose scientific experiments on the effects of radiation on living tissue fascinate Davros. When Magrantine turns out to be out for revenge against Davros’ father – the soldier whose actions resulted in the death of Magrantine’s son – Davros traps his tutor in his own radiation experiment chamber – a torturous experience that he survives, but it leaves him horribly mutated. But his mother, far from admonishing him, sees something of her own ruthless ambition in her son – and quietly gives her approval.

Order this CDwritten by Gary Hopkins
directed by Gary Russell
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Rory Jennings (Davros), Terry Molloy (Davros), Carolyn Jones (Lady Calcula), Richard Franklin (Colonel Nasgard), Lizzie Hopley (Yarvell), John Stahl (The Supremo), Peter Sowerbutts (Magrantine), Sean Connolly (Councillor Quested), Sean Carlsen (Councillor Valron), Daniel Hogarth (Section Leader Fenn), Richard Grieve (Major Brogan), James Parsons (Major Brint), Lisa Bowerman (Colonel Murash), Rita Davies (Tashek), Nicholas Briggs (Baran), Lucy Beresford (Renna), Scott Handcock (Saboteur), Andrew Wisher (Tech-Ops Reston), Jenifer Croxton (Tech-Ops Ludella)

Notes: Davros’ sister, Yarvell, has a name inspired by very early Doctor Who fiction: according to “The Dalek Book” by Terry Nation, released in 1966, the Daleks were created by a twisted genius named Yarvelling; Nation himself later rewrote the record, introducing Davros in Genesis Of The Daleks in 1975.

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Season 1 Torchwood

Everything Changes

TorchwoodA perfectly normal night on the beat for Cardiff policewoman Gwen Cooper is shattered by the arrival of a black vehicle at a murder scene. Even the police back off in deference, as four people emerge and use a strange metallic gauntlet to momentarily bring the murder victim back to life. Gwen watches in horror as the man realizes he only has two minutes to tell these people what happened to him – but can’t, since he was stabbed from behind. She finds out who they are – a mysterious organization called Torchwood, led by an American man named Captain Jack Harkness. The next day, she spots Jack again at a hospital, moments before she sees a grotesque humanoid figure brutally murder a hospital porter. Again, Jack and his Torchwood team are at the ready, subduing and capturing the inhuman killer, and just as quickly vanishing under a well-planned cover story.

Only Gwen isn’t about to let it go – she trails Torchwood’s vehicle to the Millennium Centre at the heart of Cardiff, and then follows them on foot to the waterfall – where they abruptly disappear from sight. Refusing to drop the trail, Gwen pays Torchwood a visit under the guise of delivering a pizza, but once inside their headquarters, she realizes that this organization is dabbling in something stranger than ordinary police work…and that their base of operations is actually nestled away right beneath the waterfall, where no one would think to look for it. Captain Jack introduces himself and his team: his second-in-command, Suzie Costello, medical expert Owen Harper, computer expert Toshiko Sato, and Ianto Jones, who serves as the team’s driver and organizes most of their cover. As members of Torchwood, they round up alien technology (and alien threats) that fall to Earth – activity which is apparently alarmingly common in Wales, thanks to a transdimensional rift running through Cardiff. They even have the alien killer from the hospital in custody, which inspires Gwen to propose a liaison between Torchwood and the police, rather than Torchwood sweeping in and taking over crime scenes under total secrecy.

Instead, Jack slips her an amnesia-inducing drug so she’ll forget the entire visit. But the next day, Gwen learns that more murders have taken place in Cardiff, committed with the same savage bladed weapon that felled the victim she saw Torchwood revive, and she gradually remembers Jack’s secret group – and seeing the weapon in their base of operations. If the alien is in custody, then who is still doing the killing? And has Torchwood met its match in Gwen…or a future recruit?

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Brian Kelly
music by Murray Gold

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Indira Varma (Suzie Costello), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Guy Lewis (Young Cop), Tom Price (P.C. Andy), Jason May (Soco), Rhys Swinburn (Body), Olwen Medi (Yvonne), Dion Davies (Officer), Jāms Thomas (Hospital Porter), Paul Kasey (Weevil), Mark Heal (Security Guard), Gary Sheppeard (Pizza Lad), Gwilym Havard Davies (Man), Cathryn Davis (Woman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green
Notes are included below and contain major spoilers.

Categories
Star Trek Star Trek Fan Films Starship Farragut

The Captaincy

Starship Farragut

This is an episode of a fan-made series whose storyline may be invalidated by later official studio productions.

Stardate 4625.1: Captain John Carter assumes command of the Constitution Class starship U.S.S. Farragut after a tragic incident forces her previous captain into retirement. His hand-picked choices for his chief engineer and first officer are also aboard, though he’s a little bit put off by the by-the-books demeanor of the security chief he’s inherited. The Farragut is ordered to investigate the disappearance of another Federation vessel and a survey team headed by the headstrong Commodore Broughton – and what Captain Carter and his crew find waiting for them is a party of Klingons, led by Commander Kruge and guarding a secret weapon. Focusing the energy of an entire planet on its targets, the Klingons’ new weapon could threaten any world in the Federation on a planetary scale. With the Farragut searching for survivors from the destroyed ship elsewhere, it’s up to Carter and his crew to put the Klingons out of commission.

Watch Itwritten by John Broughton & Paul Sieber
directed by Paul Sieber
music by John Seguin / additional music by Patrick Phillips

Cast: John Broughton (Captain John T. Carter), Michael Bednar (Commander Robert Tacket), Holly Bednar (Lt. Commander Michelle Smithfield), Paul R. Sieber (Lt. Prescott / Klingon voice), Tonya Bacon (Lt. Alissa Moretti), David Sepan (Baker), Amy Sepan (Dr. Holley), John Broughton Sr. (Commodore Broughton), Mark Hildebrand (Kruge), Chris Carothers (Karek), Trey Thomas (Kray), Larry Manzare (Admiral Wainwright), Amanda Root (Bell), Bob McDonough (Galway), Cherise Rosemond (Shuttlecraft Pilot), Daniel Awkward (Nash / Klingon voice), Ralph Miller (Computer voice), Michael Struck (Jennings / Strickland), James Cawley (Captain Kirk), Jeff Quinn (Mr. Spock), John Kelly (Dr. McCoy), Sally Arkulari, Daniel Awkward, Ken Brison, Nancy Ellis, Brad Graper, Steve Kaserman, Dan Manherz, John Miller, Roger Miller, Michael Oetting, Tracy Phelps, Laird Sheep, Eric Van Arsale, John Winsley (Klingon Warriors), Patrick Bell, Bruce Dennis, David Dufrane, Denis Durand, Ron Gates, Natalie Montgomery, Ian Peters, Trey Thomas, Rob Turner, Jessica Young (Farragut Crew)

Review: The premiere of a new fan series set in the classic Trek era, Starship Farragut has a roughly equal number of things going for it and things that need improvement. But it’s a very impressive first effort, and the people who put it together can hold their heads high with this latest addition to the Trek universe. Though it seems as though the ranks of Kirk-era fan films are swelling, each series is unique enough to provide a different experience, and Farragut is no exception.

Categories
Star Trek Star Trek Fan Films Star Trek: Intrepid

Heavy Lies The Crown

Star Trek: Intrepid

This is an episode of a fan-made series whose storyline may be invalidated by later official studio productions.

Stardate 59422.9: Assigned to a routine colony patrol in the Charybdis Sector, the U.S.S. Intrepid’s chain of command is disrupted when Captain Talath, making a shuttle supply run to carry power equipment to the surface of Chiron IV, encounters inexplicable interference on her final approach. Faced with a choice between killing his own captain when transporters and tractor beams can’t lock onto the shuttle, or letting it crash near a Federation colony and cause widespread destruction, Intrepid’s first officer, Commander Hunter, orders the destruction of the shuttle – and his captain. Though Starfleet praises him for quick and selfless action, Hunter is riddled by guilt and reluctant to accept a promotion to captain of the Intrepid. An unknown enemy strikes, leaving several ships near the colony without power – and without power for life support, over a thousand aboard those ships will die. Hunter gambles that since Chiron IV is the site of these disruptions, the source must be on its surface, and takes several of his senior officers on an away mission to find the cause before time runs out. But once he beams down, Hunter finds that the colonists are so terrified by the attacks that they’re ready to lash out against anyone they don’t know – including an unfamiliar Starfleet crew.

Watch Itwritten by Nick Cook
directed by Steve Hammond
music by David Beukes / Intrepid theme by Dylan Feeney

Cast: Nick Cook (Commander Hunter), Risha Denney (Captain Shelby), Mike Cugley (Rick Garran, PhD), Steven Pasqua (Lt. Cole), Lorraine Kelly (Watch Officer), Lucie Cook (Lt. Caed), Jen Graham (Ensign Stiles), Ferdos Ahmed (Ms. Raman), Shire Smith (Captain Talath), Alan Score (Commodore Prentice), Lyn McGarity (Governor Finney), Steve Hammond (Captain Merik), Lee Andrews (P.O. Kreiger), Gordon Dickson (Lt. Commander Garran), David Reid (Lt. S’Ceris), Alan Christison (Lt. Commander Navar), Jeff Hayes (Admiral T’Yla), Brandy Seymour (Computer Voice), Roy MacPhail (Chief Gaines), David Beukes (P.O. Zondag), Martin Lejeune (Ensign Faldor), Kara Dennison (Captain Dalonna), Elie Hirschman (Tom Backus), Eric Busby (Bishop), Judah Friese (Judah), Sean Koury (Freman)

Review: The flagship production of a group of dedicated fans based in Scotland, Intrepid is the first Star Trek fan film I’ve watched to skip past the Kirk era and go beyond the end of Voyager and Star Trek: Nemesis. Depending on who you ask, that’s the direction in which future Star Trek tales should be headed, rather than revisiting the past. I’m not sure I entirely agree with that school of thought, but there’s something about returning to the 24th century that’s just reassuring – it takes me back to fond memories of my teens and twenties.

Categories
Audio Dramas Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Episode 1

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective AgencyIn a distant galaxy, an electronic monk begins to malfunction. On Earth, businessman Gordon Way, rambling on and on to his sister Susan’s answering machine, hears a noise in the trunk of his car. When he goes back to check, he is shot dead. Computer programmer Richard MacDuff, who works for Gordon and is dating Susan, thinks he sees Gordon as he is heading home following his attendance at a gathering at his old college. After being stopped by a policeman, he realizes that he has promised Susan in a phone message to take her somewhere, but can’t possibly do it because of all the work he needs to finish for Gordon. He decides to break into Susan’s apartment to delete his message and his entry is observed by private detective Dirk Gently, hired by Gordon to watch Richard’s movements. Once inside, Richard is unable to delete the message before Susan returns because he recieves a call from Gently, who points out his many housebreaking mistakes and offers to help Richard. When Susan does show up, in the company of magazine publisher Michael Wenton-Weakes, they have words, but Micahel soon leaves. Richard recounts his very odd evening with his old tutor, Professor Chronotis, who talked of odd things, such as George III’s obsession with with the passage of time, and had a horse in his bathtub. The next day, Richard is the primary suspect for Gordon’s murder, a fact he learns when he goes to visit Gently in Dirk’s office. Dirk suggests that Richard’s one course of action is hypnotism…

Order this story on CDwritten by Douglas Adams
adapted by Dirk Maggs and John Langdon from the novel “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”
directed by Dirk Maggs
music by Philip Pope

Cast: Olivia Colman (Janice Pierce), Harry Enfield (Dirk Gently), Robert Duncan (Gordon Way), Felicity Montagu (Susan Way), Toby Longworth (The Electric Monk), Billy Boyd (Richard MacDuff), Michael Fenton Stevens (Michael Wenton-Weakes), Andrew Sachs (Professor Chronotis), Jim Carter (Gilks), Jeffrey Holland (George III), Wayne Forester (Courtier), Jon Glover (Professor Cawley), Philip Pope (Garage Attendant), Neil Sleet (Newsreader), John Marsh (Announcer)

Notes: Many of Adams’ ideas put forth in “Dirk Gently” can be traced back to his work on television’s Doctor Who, including aspects of the plot to City Of Death and, more significantly, the character of Professor Chronotis, who was originally created for the uncompleted serial, Shada. Adams was quite put out when the BBC completed Shada for video release in 1993, as he felt that “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” had supplanted and superceded it. While fans have tried to tie Dirk Gently and the related characters into Adams’ more popular Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, connections are tenuous, at best.

This series was produced by Above the Title, utilizing many of the same crew who had brought the last three “Hitchhiker’s” novels to the radio in the form of the “Tertiary”, “Quandary” and “Quintessential” phases.

Andrew Sachs faced off against the Doctor Who version of Professor Chronotis (played by James Fox) when he appeared as the villain Skagra in the 2002 BBCi animated production of Shada.

Jon Glover appeared in the television version of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and had worked previously with Harry Enfield in Harry Enfield’s Television Programme.

Composer and actor Philip Pope performed several voices on Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker”-related computer game Starship Titanic.

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

Categories
Remake Series 1 Survivors

Episode 1

Survivors (1970s series)A routine day in Abby Grant’s cozy world starts to unravel slowly. Her son is away with friends as news of an unprecedented virulent flu outbreak grips the UK. As news – and evidence – of the spreading flu worsens, some people grow panicked while others sink into their own oblivion. Abby falls ill and her husband desperately tries to nurse her back to health while the medical and emergency services are overwhelmed. Convicted killer Tom Price sees the spreading sickness as an opportunity to shorten his 20+ year sentence, while millionaire playboy Al Sadiq ignores the news as best he can…until he wakes up in his penthouse, his latest conquest having died of the virus overnight. The virus isn’t limited to England, and soon modern conveniences are a thing of the past. Power stations and other critical services are disrupted because the people manning them have died. Overnight, the human race is reduced to foraging for its survival.

It’s into this world that Abby awakens three days after she falls ill. Her husband has died in that time, as has everyone in her neighborhood. With phone service gone, she has no way to check on her son, and so she sets out to find him. Along the way, she runs into Greg Preston, who seems to have very clear ideas on what he’ll have to do to survive, and has stocked up on fuel, food and other necessities. They soon encounter more survivors, including a disheartened doctor named Anya Raczynski, and the unlikely pair of Al Sadiq and an 11-year-old orphan, Najid. Tom Price, having murdered his last surviving jailer to escape, is also a survivor – though no one yet knows what he is capable of.

written by Adrian Hodges
based on the novel by Terry Nation
directed by John Alexander
music by Edmund Butt

Cast: Julie Graham (Abby Grant), Shaun Dingwall (David Grant), Joanne Rowden (Linda Pope), Matt Lanigan (Joe Pope), Freema Agyeman (Jenny Walsh), Amber Herod (Tina Styles), Guy Hargreaves (Mr. Styles), Christine Anderson (Marion Sturges), Max Beesley (Tom Price), Tim Dantay (Gary Wilson), Joe Jacobs (Tony Coyne), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Samantha Willis), Jamie Belman (Mark Carter), Flo Wilson (Helen Crawley), Trevor Dwyer-Lynch (Driver at petrol station), Phillip Rhys (Aalim “Al” Sadiq), Sophia Di Martino (Simone), Bryony Afferson (Patricia Kelly), Zoe Tapper (Anya Raczynski), Hazel Cadman (Hospital Receptionist), Ian Champion (Journalist 1), Sagar Arya (Journalist 2), Tom Lloyd-Roberts (Sir Brian Tilston), Geoffrey Kirkness (General Mike Stone), Rohit Gokani (Najid’s Father), Chahak Patel (Najid Harif), Francis Magee (Callum Brown), Robert Boulter (Neil), Sophie McShera (Cathy), Paterson Joseph (Greg Preston), Jimmy Allen (Man at petrol station), Nicholas Gleaves (Whitaker), Ronny Jhutti (Sami Masood)

Notes: Though it’s the equivalent of The Fourth Horseman, the first episode of the original Survivors series, this untitled pilot of the new series subtracts and adds numerous characters and changes many of the details in the name of modernizing the story. Oddly, the writers’ credit for the pilot only credits Survivors creator Terry Nation for his novel, which was in fact a novelization of the original series; as such, writer and executive producer Adrian Hodges is credited as the show’s creator. Both Shaun Dingwall and Freema Agyeman had recently appeared in Doctor Who, and much was made of their appearances in Survivors, though neither of their characters survive this episode; Paterson Joseph – who had appeared in the first season finale of the new Doctor Who – was also a hot topic as Survivors premiered, as many considered him a likely contender for the role of the Doctor, which David Tennant had recently announced he would be vacating. Another Doctor Who universe veteran prominent in the first season is Nikki Amuka-Bird, who also appeared in the second season of Torchwood.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Caprica

Caprica (Pilot)

CapricaZoe Graystone is a typical teenager, excelling in the art of making her parents’ lives hell – and in keeping secrets from them. Her father is Daniel Graystone, a multi-billionaire technology magnate whose big breakthrough, holo-bands, have put him on top of the world; Zoe has also inherited her father’s genius, creating and programming essentially a perfect copy of herself in a virtual world, another Zoe with the personality, likes, dislikes and foibles of herself. But she’s managed to keep this from her father, as well as her involvement with a movement toward monotheism…and her plans to run away from home. During her flight from Caprica, Zoe discovers – too late – that one of her fellow believers in a single, all-powerful god is a suicide bomber.

In the wake of the tragedy, Daniel Graystone has a chance meeting with a lawyer named William Adams. A native of the planet Tauron, Adams isn’t that happy with his lot in life; despite being a moderately successful lawyer, he too often finds himself running “errands” for the Guatrau, a Tauron crime lord and power broker, including bailing the Guatrau’s more “hands-on” errand boys out of legal trouble. Adams lost his wife and daughter to the suicide bombing, and left to raise his son William alone. This gives Adams and Graystone some unlikely common ground, and they become fast friends, though Adams is hardly a power attorney and wonders what his unimaginably rich new friend really has in mind.

Graystone discovers Zoe’s friend Lacy – who, at the last minute, elected not to try to run away with Zoe and never boarded the transport – interacting with the virtual Zoe, and is surprised as the complexity and accuracy of the simulation of his daughter. Having hit a dead-end in his own artificial intelligence work for a major defense contract, Graystone decides to base a new AI on Zoe’s simulation. But there’s one further snag: he’ll need the central processor developed by a competing company on Tauron to pull it off.

And this is where Graystone’s new friend comes in. With the technology of Caprica virtually under his thumb, it’s no problem for Graystone to find out about Adams’ tenuous underworld connections. He asks Adams to use his contacts to arrange for the theft of the needed processor; in return, the Guatrau asks Adams for a “favor” that could have serious repercussions for all involved. At the end of the day, Graystone and the Guatrau get what they want. When Graystone tries to thank Adams by introducing him to a simulation of Adams’ late daughter, their cameraderie comes to a very swift end. The simulation of Adams’ daughter is a traumatized, tortured soul who seems to know that she isn’t real. Adams decides that power over mortality is meant for no one but the gods, and bids Graystone farewell. Adams promises his son William that they will make a new start, beginning with a return to their family’s original Tauron name: Adama.

Graystone shrugs off Adams’ departure and downloads Zoe’s artificial consciousness into a cybernetic body. The download doesn’t work, and in his hubris, Graystone failed to back up the artificial Zoe. He’s left with nothing, and has no choice but to reprogram the stolen processor and use it as the core of a cyborg for a Ministry of Defense demonstration. That test run goes spectacularly well – the same cybernetic body into which Graystone attempted to download Zoe proves to be a powerful mechanical warrior, securing Graystone’s contract and his future…and setting his world on a course for its destruction.

Download this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Remi Aubuchon & Ronald D. Moore
directed by Jeffrey Reiner
music by Bear McCreary

Cast: Eric Stoltz (Daniel Graystone), Esai Morales (Joseph Adama), Paula Malcomson (Amanda Graystone), Alessandra Toreson (Zoe Graystone), Magda Apanowicz (Lacy Rand), Avan Jogia (Ben Stark), Polly Walker (Sister Clarice Willow), Sasha Roiz (Sam Adama), Brian Markinson (Jordan Duram), William B. Davis (Minister Chambers), Sina Najafi (William Adama), Jorge Montesi (The Guatrau), Hiro Kanagawa (Cyrus Xander), Genevieve Buechner (Tamara Adams), Anna Galvin (Shannon Adams), Katie Keating (Prefect Caston), Veena Sood (Secretary of Defense Joan Leyte), Karen Austin (Ruth), Nancy Kerr (Prosecutor), Terence Kelly (Mayor), Angela Moore (Judge), Josh Byer (Defendant), Vicky Lambert (Hecate), Jim Thomson (voice of Serge), Jared Keeso (Rod Jenkins), Kathryn Schellenberg (Dancer), Maiko Miyauchi (Dancer), Daina Ashbee (Dancer), Adrienne Chan (Dancer), Salma Allam (Dancers), Kirsten Wicklund (Dancer), Shawn Stewart (Dancer), Donald Sales (Dancer), Paul Becker (Dancer), Cara Long (V Club patron), Jay Devery (V Club patron), Keita Parker (V Club patron), Chelsea Darden (V Club patron), Megan Sehn (V Club patron), Chantal Ayre (V Club patron), Michelle Andrew (V Club patron), Eva Hartkoff (V Club patron)

Notes: Caprica takes place 58 years before the fall of Capirca as depicted in the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. Young William Adams would grow up to be Galactica’s Admiral William Adama, and his father Joseph wrote the legal texts that Lee Adama studied when he decided to change careers from career military to attorney. As with the re-imagined Galactica, Caprica assumes that the earliest Cylons resembled the “chrome suit” Cylons from the original 1970s incarnation of Battlestar Galactica. “Cylon” is revealed to be an acronym for “Cybernetic Lifeform Node”. Guest star William B. Davis is best-known in SF TV circles for his long-running recurring role as the X-Files’ sinister Cigarette Smoking Man. Esai Morales appeared alongside Edward James Olmos, who starred in Battlestar Galactica as the adult William Adama, in the acclaimed TV series American Family, as well as the 1995 film My Family. The premiere date assigned to this synopsis is that of the Caprica pilot movie’s 2009 DVD release date, several months prior to its broadcast premiere in 2010.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

Pilot

V (2000s series)Life on Earth is brought to a standstill as enormous alien ships appear over most of the world’s major cities. Each ship reconfigures itself into a gigantic screen projecting an image of a seemingly human woman who introduces herself as Anna, the leader of these alien visitors. She promises peace and an exchange of technology with humanity – and all the visitors ask is access to Earth’s abundant water and a commonly occurring mineral. The visitors are welcomed with open arms, and they begin bringing the benefits of their advanced technology to Earth almost immediately, opening “healing centers” capable of repairing almost any damage or disease.

And yet there is suspicion about the motives of Anna’s people. A priest named Father Landry shocks his congregation by suggesting that the visitors need to earn humanity’s trust. Erica Evans, a counter-terrorism expert, is suspicious when the visitors take to the internet immediately with their own propaganda effort, though her son is less suspicious, finding the visitors’ women very attractive. Reporter Chad Peters earns Anna’s trust by asking the press corps to show her respect at a peace conference – enough trust that Anna personally selects him to conduct her first major prime time interview, though she makes it clear before the cameras roll that the interview will be conducted on her terms, with no questions permitted that would paint the visitors in a negative light.

A member of Father Landry’s congregation appears in the church, bleeding to death, and he hands Landry a package of photos and instructions to take them to a specific address at a specific time. Erica also winds up at that address, following a lead on an open terrorist investigation. Where they find themselves is at a meeting of an underground resistance, taking up arms to fight the visitors…and before Erica or Father Landry can ask why the visitors need to be fought, the visitors themselves appear and, to the few survivors of the resulting massacre, all becomes clear: the visitors have been among humanity for years already, and they do not come in peace.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Elizabeth Mitchell (Erica Evans), Morris Chestnut (Ryan Nichols), Joel Gretsch (Father Jack Landry), Logan Huffman (Tyler Evans), Lourdes Benedicto (Valerie Stevens), Laura Vandervoort (Lisa), Morena Baccarin (Anna), Scott Wolf (Chad Decker)

written by Scott Peters
story by Kenneth Johnson and Scott Peters, based on the miniseries by Kenneth Johnson
directed by Yves Simoneau
music by Normand Corbeil

Guest Cast: Christopher Shyer (Marcus), David Richmond-Peck (Georgie), Britt Irvin (Haley Stark), Scott Hylands (Father Travis)

Notes: Originally created by Kenneth Johnson as a non-sci-fi modern-day (well, 1980s) retelling of the rise of the Nazi Party, the original V miniseries resulted from NBC’s request for a sci-fi epic, retaining its cautionary tone but now with more futuristic action. In some ways, ABC’s revival of V steers things slightly closer to Johnson’s original intent. But Johnson himself was almost stripped of anything more than a “based upon” credit for the new series; the Writers’ Guild of America decided, in arbitration, that despite a wholesame revamp of the show’s cast of characters, Johnson should still be credited for creating the series, and should receive a story credit for the pilot (which seems to cover much of the original five-hour miniseries’ ground in the space of a single hour). The writers of the new series do not have to seek any further approval from Johnson for any storyline developments, however Johnson does retain the feature film rights to V. The location of the ill-fated resistance meeting, 4400 Pier Avenue, is a nod the cancelled cult SF series The 4400, whose cast and crew included actor Joel Gretsch, writer/producer Scott Peters and director Yves Simoneau.